Railway fleet to be expanded by new locomotives, wagons

TEHRAN- Some 45 new locomotives, 2,700 new freight wagons, and 97 new passenger wagons will be added to the railway fleet of Iran, IRIB reported on Saturday quoting a deputy at the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI).

Mojtaba Tafaqodi, the deputy for fleet affairs at RAI, also stressed supporting private sector in the railway industry and announced about many incentives that RAI offers to this sector such as reducing tariffs and paying loans.

“It is unfortunate that the major part of transportation is still made through roads in the country; while railway development has witnessed some significant growth over the recent years and also some 3,300 kilometers of new railroads are currently under construction in Iran. But the statistics show that there is still low interest for transport via railway”, Kheirollah Khademi, the managing director of Iran’s Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company (CDTIC), said last week.

He said that road account for 90 percent while railway account for 10 percent of transportation in Iran.

Last month, Managing Director of RAI Saeed Mohammadzadeh said that some €20 billion is needed to supply the required infrastructure for development of national railway network by March 2021.

“According to the set programs, 54 percent of the needed investments will be made by the private sector and the rest will be supplied by the government,” he added.

“RAI intends to have a 20 percent stake in Iran’s freight transport and a 30 percent one in passenger transport by 2021,” Mohammadzadeh underlined.